While a student's formative years from elementary and middle school are clearly important, they are not quite the same as a high school experience. Kids come of age during their adolescence, and their performances in the classroom have a direct impact on their future college applications. For these reasons, it is imperative for high school students to take their education seriously.

College Preperatory Measures: This takes into account the percent of students who pass an AP exam, or the percent of students who take the ACT or SAT.

Graduation/Retention Rates: The rate at which seniors graduate, as well as the percent of students who get held back a grade.

States are listed in alphabetical order. Additionally, 14 percent of the public high schools in our database did not report enough data to create a rating and were left out of consideration.

It's important to note that while the StartClass Rating attempts to quantify the caliber of each high school, there are many factors outside of the score that can impact a student's high school experience. Our list provides a good overview for some of the nation's best high schools, but it is not meant to be definitive.